County jail incarceration rates in the USA are potential drivers of many causes of death in the communities where they are located, with particularly pronounced effects on the number of deaths caused by infectious and respiratory diseases, drug overdose, and suicide, according to a long-term analysis of jail incarceration and county-level mortality across 1,094 counties between 1987 and 2017, published in The Lancet Public Health journal.
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Extreme weather driven by climate change is making power outages more commonplace even as the need for electricity-dependent home health equipment grows. In this context, battery storage can help protect medically vulnerable households, according to researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The article is published in the journal
Futures.
For the millions reliant on electricity for home medical equipment, even short-term power outages can lead to a potentially life-threatening situation. Society s most vulnerable populations elders, the ill, and the poor face the greatest risks. Only a fraction of individuals who rely on medical equipment like oxygen concentrators, nebulizers, ventilators, dialysis, and sleep apnea machines has an alternative source of power to use in the event of an outage. During outages related to the 2019 Camp Fire in Northern California, vulnerable residents reported complications, including one man who awoke when his sleep
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An analysis of U.S. county-level data found a strong association between jail incarceration and death rates from infectious diseases, chronic lower respiratory disease, drug use, and suicide, in a new study by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The researchers found this was the case to a lesser extent for heart disease and cancer. The study is the first to examine the link between the expansion of the jail population and multiple specific causes of death at the county level, and adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting that decarceration strategies would improve public health. Findings are published online in the journal
New method uses DNA biomarkers to flag prenatal environmental exposures in children
Scientists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health developed a method using a DNA biomarker to easily screen pregnant women for harmful prenatal environmental contaminants like air pollution linked to childhood illness and developmental disorders. This approach has the potential to prevent childhood developmental disorders and chronic illness through the early identification of children at risk.
While environmental factors including air pollutants have previously been associated with DNA markers, no studies to date have used DNA markers to flag environmental exposures in children. Study results are published online in the journal
Photo illustration (Getty Images): Andrew Brookes; Juan Gaertner/Science Photo Library; olaser
More than a year has passed since the novel coronavirus arrived in the United States. In many parts of the country, daily caseloads and deaths remain at or near their pandemic peaks.
But the prospect of a post-Covid future is real and potentially close at hand. The vaccines are here, and they are working. In Israel, where nearly half of the population has received at least one shot, vaccines appear to be limiting infections even more effectively than public health officials had hoped.
But exactly how and when will the U.S. emerge from the pandemic? When can we take off our masks, attend crowded indoor events, and freely hug our friends and loved ones? And what roadblocks still stand between us and that glimmering future?